Maintain a Calorie Deficit of 500-750... This means that I used more calories than I ate... this is the most important goal for weight loss. If I ate a little more than I should have, did I get enough movement in to counteract that? THIS NUMBER TAKES INTO ACCCOUNT HOW ACTIVE I AM AND HOW MUCH I EAT. If I meet my target for 6 days I have saved up 3000-4500 calories , if I am good on the 7th day I should lose a pound or just over. If I decide to "reward" myself… it all comes out of that account and I need 3500 to lose a pound. If I underestimated how many calories I ate all week or if I spend everything I earned… I just maintain. Which is fine AFTER I reach goal. Knowing that many restaurant meals will eat up 2000 calories easily or 4 days worth of meeting a 500 calorie deficit goal, it makes it easy to see that these "rewards" should be VERY infrequent and even more infrequently would I eat the whole portion they serve up. These meals simply are not in the weekly budget if I'm going to meet my goals. So aligning my actions… (rarely eating out and picking good options when I do) (sticking to logging food intake EVEN WHEN I’M NOT doing what I'm supposed to) and getting 30 minutes of exercise daily are going to go a long way.

Shooting for 500- 750. How am I doing?

As of December 12: The body bugg shows that I have gained 1.3 pounds a week over the last 30 days on average. Definitely NOT the direction I want to be moving. I have some very good days in there,… but I also have some not so great meals /days in there and they really are adding up.

Average 8000 Steps a day... Pretty self explanatory, I have averaged 5,846 steps... so this is a STRETCH goal. I really have to give this constant attention because during a week day I can easily get under 3000 a day.

I have learned that steps alone do not help with the overall calorie burn quite like a dedicated exercise session where I get my heart rate up and can feel my muscles warming up. It's good for me though; it helps me get some activity in and would help to probably keeps my body's metabolism from shifting down into sleeper mode, lol. This is more of an indicator of where I fit in on an activity level scale. I think getting up to 8000 would shift me out of sedentary into lightly active. I'm keeping it around as a goal that just encourages me to move more in my daily living routines.

In December I'm hoping to hit this 10 Days. How am I doing?

No Change.

Log Food Intake...Doing great here! I like using the Tap n Track application on my iTouch helps a lot. Faster than logging on a website, just because internet connections are slow and tedious fro this task. An offline tracker really saves time. My favorite app by far.

The goal would be 7 consecutive days logged each week: working towards 28 Consecutive Days Logged. Check?

December 12, 2010: I really only struggle with this when I eat things that I don't want to log. When I am eating "off plan" it is really hard to own it. So that's where I'm working to improve on this. The idea being that I don’t go into denial when I'm off plan. I know what I'm about to eat or what I just ate and I can adjust accordingly. If I just pretend that it didn't happen and hope that I don't get a notice in the mail that my account is overdrawn / scale goes up or I'm out of funds / scale doesn't go down… I can still eat a treat and actually move down on the scale. I think that the fact that it's hard to get data sometimes is an excuse not to log and a way of not "owning " my actions. Connect the action with the consequence. Log it!

The goal here is to log everything I put in my mouth. Not just the good days / meals.

Exercise / Fitness Goals:

Wii Fit PlusMinutes... other than just weighing in of course, .. and it's fun, too. I should do this more.

10 Days of 15 Minutes.Check?December 12, 2010: I have one day, need to try harder.

EllipticalMinutes... this makes for a great 10 minute warm-upor a full workout.

10 Days of 15 Minutes.Check?No Change.

Videos... Jackie Warner 15 minute total body workout, or a Yoga video, I have lots to choose from. Yay, this will be fun!! 10 Days of 15 Minutes. Check?No Change.

I can honestly say that the focus has been on work and getting through a couple of audits for the two production facilities. This is where my focus was needed and I'm happy that it all paid off. Yay us!!

I did not have it in me to contemplate 'camp' or fitness at all. I traveled a lot and wasn't home to do the work required to stick to 'eating clean' and low calorie. Husband and I have had a goal to not eat out for the last 80 days of the year and I did great for about a month and then fell from that wagon pretty hard. I did try to keep my food choices healthy... oatmeal for breakfasts and lots of salads without cheese and just a touch of dressing for dinners. It's weird, I didn't feel spoiled that I could eat out... I felt like I was settling for less; less healthy amd less yummy. (Which is cool, right?)

Nonetheless, I did do pretty good. I kept my weigh under 150 except for 2-5 days (AWESOME ACCOMPLISHMENT) and of those 5 three of them were the last 3 days of the month.

In some ways, it was the best month yet!

Using the Tools:
I did not track my food. When I prepare my food I know the calorie content and how the nutrition breaks down, but when I eat out, I have to guess calories too much, I try for awhile, but then start thinking how off I am and just give up. I am really trying to let go of the need for perfection in tracking and try and at least do it so I am not letting myself eat without accounting for it. It's so easy to "forget" about all the BLT's (bites, licks, tastes) and even a snack if I'm not careful. I would have felt better about imperfect tracking that kept me mindful of EVERYTHING I ate, then not doing it at all.

I didn't exercise more than two or three times this month. My walking partner at work does not travel to Fruitland with me and she's been pretty uncomfortable in her pregnant body this last month on those days that I was in Salt Lake. Still, I have not come up with a Plan B that fits into my work day, so a time must be found in the morning (aaak!) or evenings. Now to make the matter of making it a priority over other things like crashing on the couch. I will feel better and not feel like I need to crash once I get going most days.

I'm excited to be done with the Audits and now I can pick up my healthy habits where I left off and see if I can't make some improvements on moving more.

Breakfast!
Pumpkin Pancakes with Cranberries were delicious this morning! I used a whole wheat buttermilk pancake mix from Lehi Roller Mills and added just as much pumpkin puree as I could and still be able to have the mixture act as a pancake batter should. I added a little water to thin it and put some Craisins in the mix. It was delicious!

Note: I'm almost done with the huge bag of Craisins I've had for months and months. Next time I purchase these, I will purchase a non-sweetened variety of dried cranberries. I've been making "clean eating" changes like this over the past year and have discovered that I love having a say over when I add sugar, salt, or glucaphonameg hexamonobisphenome. (I made that last one up.) I have a lot of fun shopping for health at the grocery store.

Live with Intention

Where is your Focus?

About Me

Hey! This is where I blog about where I'm headed and how I'm getting there. With varying intensity, but determined focus, I work on trying to be the best me I can.
...I am wife to a man who inspires me and loves me. He is my support, my best friend and love of my life. I am stronger because of him. He encourages, motivates and even jumps on board when our goals coincide, and they often do. We should all be so lucky...
We're working hard and learning to be more healthy and active, and to live well and well within our means. Still, remembering to enjoy and indulge in simple pleasures, our life as a couple, and family togetherness.